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2537 results in Legal Skills and Practice

Page 30 of 127

  • 8 - Mindfulness: Theory and Practice

  • from PART I - NURTURING YOUR BEST SELF
  • Nathalie Martin
  • Book:
    Lawyering from the Inside Out
    Published online:
    18 May 2018
    Print publication:
    07 June 2018, pp 100-116

  • Summary

    A Wild Bull

    The effort to make the mind quiet,

    Is like holding a wild bull on a leash.

    The leash is held on to, and he drags you around,

    And you are determined not to release.

    One day maybe the bull will stop moving,

    And finally you can rest.

    Or you can stop expecting the bull to be still,

    And let go of the leash, instead.

    Once you don't care what the bull does,

    When you no longer seek to control him,

    Wherever he goes and whatever he does,

    Does not affect the one watching.

    A bull moves around, that's what it does,

    If you fight him, he fights you back.

    Don't ask the mind to be silent,

    Then silence is all that you have.

    Adam Oakley

    I love the image of the mind as this raging bull in Adam Oakley's poem above. The mind is often like that, off on its own, pulling us all over the place and causing us to go way off track from where we want and need to be. Most of this severe agitation is unnecessary. We all know that our thoughts are not us and that our thoughts are not reality, but we still have moments when those raging bull thoughts, As a result, we get less done and are less happy in life than we could otherwise be. In a sense, by allowing the bull to rage, we are wasting our precious time on this earth. This chapter provides an introduction to some modern mindfulness practices that can be used to slow the raging bull down.

    This chapter starts by describing the world's first mindfulness practices, developed over 3,000 years ago. It then describes what drew people to these practices back then, and why there is an upsurge in these practices now. Meditation, for example, has been scientifically shown to improve concentration, allowing one to get more done in less time and with less effort, to help one establish “flow,” and to find enhanced meaning and purpose in life.

  • 5 - Lawyer Skill Sets: What We Have, What We Need

  • from PART I - NURTURING YOUR BEST SELF
  • Nathalie Martin
  • Book:
    Lawyering from the Inside Out
    Published online:
    18 May 2018
    Print publication:
    07 June 2018, pp 56-70

  • Summary

    In the last chapter we discussed some of the negative traits attributed to lawyers in society, including dishonesty, greed, and narcissism. Through these images we know what people dislike in attorneys, but what attributes and skills are actually valued in lawyers?What are clients and legal employers looking for in their young attorneys?

    This chapter describes these most desirable lawyer skills using empirical research on the subject of which skills are most valued by clients and legal employers. For context, this chapter first describes a few typical law jobs. It then briefly describes the history of legal education, which helps explain why the skills we learn in law school are not necessarily the ones most valued by clients and legal employers. The bottom line is that trustworthy, empathetic people are more successful, so collegiality and good communication skills are paramount.

    ONE LEGAL TRAINING, MANY DIFFERENT KINDS OF LAWYERS

    When my friend Ocean wakes up in the morning, he gets his kids ready for school, then puts on a suit and goes to his job working as in-house counsel for a bank. His job is to negotiate contracts with all different types of vendors, from the photocopy vendor to multimillion-dollar financial institutions that hold billions of dollars’ worth of collateral. Every week he gets to use the knowledge we discussed in our 1L Contracts class. He also helps steer the bank through a complex federal and state regulatory landscape that is constantly shifting. To do a good job, he has to remember that good lawyers don't panic – staying calm and grounded is a helpful attribute. It is rewarding and not too terribly stressful.

    When my friend Jenny gets up, she throws on jeans and sweater, gets her son off to school, and then sets off to direct the non-profit she formed. Her job involves raising money, hiring and training attorneys and paralegals, and educating the public about the plight of undocumented people living in the US. Jenny knows she is doing important work and feels great about her contributions to society.

  • 17 - Responsibility to Society, Professional Identity, and Access to Justice

  • from PART III - YOU AND SOCIETY: FINDING GREATER PURPOSE
  • Nathalie Martin
  • Book:
    Lawyering from the Inside Out
    Published online:
    18 May 2018
    Print publication:
    07 June 2018, pp 244-259

  • Summary

    At the end of the last chapter, you were given the chance to imagine your wildest dream for your life in the law. You had the opportunity to vividly picture yourself having the impact you want on society and the opportunity to write about that impact at length. You even got a chance to visualize a world in which you were at the helm of something bigger and larger than you, and how, through that image, the world could change in meaningful and dramatic ways. We promised that in this last full chapter, we would explore how to create that place, which we will do now.

    But first, we ask you also to imagine law school and the legal profession as a place in which you feel at home and of use to society as a whole.

    TRANSFORMING LAW SCHOOLS TO SERVE OUR INTERESTS AND THOSE OF SOCIETY

    Think back to the feeling you had when you first entered the law school building? Did you feel out of place? Did it seem like you did not fit in?

    If you felt out of place, perhaps it is because law school did not embody your ideas of justice or your dreams for yourself as a lawyer. Perhaps that uneasy feeling of being out of place had more to do with the place than with you. Perhaps it was the formality, the lack of formality, the values, the lack of values, or just the way the building looked.

    LAW PAUSE

    Take ten minutes to write a few paragraphs on the following:

    What would it take to make the law school climate just right for you? What would it take to change that climate to fit you, rather than you changing to conform to it?

    Put another way, imagine what the profession would look like if you could build it from the ground up. How would it be different, in terms of training, focus, and emphasis? How about the teaching and the learning? Imagine what the profession could look like if law school was really good not just for you but for the people you want to serve.

  • 12 - Giving and Receiving Feedback

  • from PART II - YOU AND OTHERS AROUND YOU
    • By Joshua Alt, newly minted graduate of the University of New Mexico School of Law, Nathalie Martin, University of New Mexico School of Law
  • Nathalie Martin
  • Book:
    Lawyering from the Inside Out
    Published online:
    18 May 2018
    Print publication:
    07 June 2018, pp 182-193

  • Summary

    I never lose. I either win or learn.

    Nelson Mandela

    Experience is the name we give to our mistakes.

    Oscar Wilde

    Experts in attorney professional development believe that the ability to seek and receive meaningful feedback is one of the most critical attorney traits. According to founders of the Holloran Center, Neil Hamilton and Jerry Organ, seeking out feedback is a key element in becoming a self-directed, professional attorney. There is no doubt that receiving feedback gracefully is incredibly important to your career. In the words of law Professor Pamela Foohey, “Getting and receiving feedback is the ultimate part of any professional job. A person's ability to accept feedback depends on the circumstances of the job and what the feedback is about. Being able to recognize how to give feedback changes with context and is super-EQ.”

    Yet feedback, and self-awareness in general, is not always pleasant. For example, not long ago, my husband and I (Professor Martin) helped a friend of a friend fill out the eHarmony questionnaire to help him find a good relationship. He had been slipping into harmful relationships for a long time, perhaps a lifetime. He is not much of a computer guy, so we helped with the initial form. As he filled out the questionnaire, he gave himself a six (the top score) in every category. The computer programeventually shut him down, deciding he was not an actual person. We do not know him well, but a lifetime of experience told us there had to be something for which he was not a six. We suspected it might be self-awareness.

    As another example, I recently learned that I have a great propensity to start many things, but not much of a drive to finish them. I did not learn this on my own. Someone told me. Actually many people may have told me, but we all wait until we are ready to learn our own blind spots. This chapter is designed to help you learn yours. Once you do, life is easier.

  • Foreword

  • Nathalie Martin
  • Book:
    Lawyering from the Inside Out
    Published online:
    18 May 2018
    Print publication:
    07 June 2018, pp xiii-xiv

  • Summary

    I am astonished how effortlessly Nathalie Martin names, clarifies, and explores the perplexing, disorienting legal – yet deeply human – dilemmas we encounter, in such clear and simple language. Obviously an excellent teacher, her classroom acumen naturally carries over into an easy elegance throughout her writing, which makes this an eminently readable book.

    She speaks with fierce wisdom and a refreshing depth of understanding. She examines those places where, following a legal calling, one invariably finds our most noble, universally accepted truths – justice, fairness, guaranteed access to “one's day in court,” a fundamental equality before the law – directly clashing, at times violently, with the sloppy, uncooperative “facts” of “real life.” These painful realizations can disrupt, challenge, and even ridicule our more hopeful expectations that anything we are called upon to defend equitably or represent as true will ever be an “easy” case.

    Still – she honors the pain and confusion of being a lawyer in a world of exponential complexity, and fearlessly, yet mercifully, attends to this ever-changing rule of law in the world, as it intersects with the more personal, intimately tender gifts and challenges we encounter in our own inner and outer lives.

    Can the arc of our inner life bend toward justice?

    Martin does not shrink from addressing this question. As the world increasingly demands we function as part of an efficient legal machine – churning out more opinions, convictions, closed cases – what if our humanity (especially those irrational, intuitive, quiet knowings of the heart; things that both slow us down and invaluably aid in our discerning more accurately what is authentic, right, and true) ultimately helps us build a more just and honorable world? What if these emotional, sensitive, invisible knowings, our “human inefficiencies,” are demonstrably the most valuable tools in our toolbox? How can we honor the spirit, rather than merely the letter, of the law, if we lose our ability to hear those still, small voices of our own spirit, speaking clearly and reliably within us in every moment?

  • 1 - Gaining Self-Awareness

  • from PART I - NURTURING YOUR BEST SELF
  • Nathalie Martin
  • Book:
    Lawyering from the Inside Out
    Published online:
    18 May 2018
    Print publication:
    07 June 2018, pp 7-20

  • Summary

    Tear down this house. For under it lies a treasure far greater than you could ever imagine. Tear down this house, for a hundred thousand new houses can be built from the transparent yellow carnelian buried under it.

    Rumi

    You can certainly become a lawyer without becoming more familiar with yourself. People have been doing it for centuries. There is no doubt, however, that selfawareness is a trait we all value in others.

    Today, many people expect their lawyers to be more interpersonally skilled than perhaps in the past. Rather than mere legal technicians, people expect lawyers to listen and act with humility, compassion, and an understanding of the human condition. New American Bar Association rules suggest that lawyers be trained in self-reflection, as well as interpersonal awareness and skill, yet most law schools still do not train lawyers in these essential skills. Lawyers with these skills will always be in high demand. This is because self-aware lawyers are better at resolving conflict, which is one of our main jobs in society.

    William Ury of the Harvard Program on Negotiation and Harvard Negotiation Project calls the process of mindful self-awareness “getting to yes with yourself.” In his book by the same name, he explains the many benefits of mindful selfawareness:

    The process of getting to “yes with yourself” not only makes it easier to resolve conflicts, but it also actually helps prevent conflicts from arising in the first place. By not reacting, by staying calm, and grounded, you will avoid being provoked and will be less likely to take attacks personally. You are far less likely to say or do things you will later regret. With an attitude of sincere respect and a genuine willingness to help address the needs of others, you will be able to resolve matters long before they escalate into serious disputes. You will get along naturally with others with a minimum of conflict.

    This book, on the subject of attorney professional development through mindfulness and emotional intelligence, is designed to help you accomplish these goals and others. Through the practices outlined in these pages, we hope to help you reach the state described by Ury above. We also hope to help you experience less stress, become more focused, and eventually experience deep job satisfaction.

  • 4 - The Lawyer in Society: Popular Culture Images of Lawyers and Your Self-Image

  • from PART I - NURTURING YOUR BEST SELF
  • Nathalie Martin
  • Book:
    Lawyering from the Inside Out
    Published online:
    18 May 2018
    Print publication:
    07 June 2018, pp 48-55

  • Summary

    This chapter asks you to examine your personal role in the profession through the lens of society's perceptions of attorneys. We ask that you place a vivid image of yourself as a lawyer front and center in your mind, and then read about lawyer jokes and images of lawyers in books, television, and movies. We then return to your own view of yourself to think about your professional identity formation in the law. We study themedia and the jokes to see how we can work together to dispel negative images of our profession. As you no doubt know, lawyer jokes and negative images in the media are incredibly prevalent. Indeed, when hearing that we are writing a book about mindful lawyering, many people assume it is a joke about an oxymoron.

    Lawyer jokes and media images of lawyers may not be totally accurate, but they do provide a window into the public's perception of our profession.While these jokes and television and movie roles may be funny or entertaining on some level, they portray lawyers in a way that perpetuates deeply negative stereotypes. Many of these jokes also have an ounce of truth in them. As a profession, we need to look at ourselves, our training, and our practices to see what can be done to change not only our collective image, but our actions. The goal of this chapter is to lead you on the path toward creating this necessary change in the profession. In this chapter, we examine the roles of lawyers in society from the perception of the general public, so you can imagine and find your place in that world. First, however, we ask you to visualize yourself as a lawyer.

    YOUR PLACE IN THE LAW

    Your Image of Yourself

    LAW PAUSE

    Think about what people said when you told them you were going to become a lawyer. Write a few sentences about the themes of these reactions.

    Little Pause: Think of your favorite positive image of a lawyer in society. Now think of a negative one. Muse for a moment about where these images come from.

  • 15 - Making Mindful, Client-Centered Decisions

  • from PART II - YOU AND OTHERS AROUND YOU
  • Nathalie Martin
  • Book:
    Lawyering from the Inside Out
    Published online:
    18 May 2018
    Print publication:
    07 June 2018, pp 215-220

  • Summary

    Good decision-making, particularly in a service profession where decisions are made for the benefit of another, is critical to good lawyering. While claims ultimately make their own decisions, in many complex legal settings clients can only decide with the thoughtful help of their clients. In reality, lawyers make hundreds of decisions a week, many on behalf of clients. Yet research shows that most lawyers prefer to rely exclusively on order, structure, and reason when making decisions, particularly when compared to the general population. Other people, including clients, may not appreciate this fact-based, highly structured approach. In fact, good decision-making requires cultural competence, the subject of the last chapter, as well as good listening skills. More balanced, empathetic decision-making skills can also help us in our personal lives.

    Before making an important decision on behalf of a client, engage with the three preparatory steps below. Then use the practices in step 4 to actually make the decision.

  • 1. Get yourself in order, go up to the balcony, and take an inside look. What are you thinking or feeling? Use your mindfulness techniques to check in and see where you are and what you are up to, what you are thinking and feeling.

  • 2. In client matters, put yourself in your client's shoes. Before making big decisions for a client, use your listening skills and your cultural competence to consider the similarities and differences between you and your client. For similarities, bring back a time in your life when you felt similarly, based upon a previous situation in your life that mirrors in some small way what the client has experienced. Then chart the ways in which you and the client are different, perhaps on gender, race, age, sexual orientation, disability, or economic status, or even more subtle cultural issues of some kind. Do not overlook one difference that will be present in most representations. You know the legal system and the client does not. The client is likely scared and worried about accessing the system through a third party, you, who are essentially still a stranger to him or her.

  • 3. Go back and examine your own motivations.

Page 30 of 127